The present invention relates to a method of treating wintergreen flavors so as to eliminate the undesirable off-notes occasionally associated therewith when such flavors are utilized in confectionary or medicinal products. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of treating flavors and flavor blends having natural wintergreen oil, artificial wintergreen oil-methyl salicylate, and blends thereof with other flavors.
Flavors having wintergreen and/or methyl salicylate as a component may exhibit undesirable off-notes of varying intensity which have been characterized as being soapy, medicinal, antiseptic, musty, bitter, solventy, chemical, and plastic. It has been postulated that these flavors contain an impurity which is responsible for the undesirable off-notes occasionally associated therewith. Pursuant to the foregoing hypothesis, analytical tests have been conducted which show the presence of phenol in these flavors, and that the amount of phenol present is directly related to the intensity of the undesirable off-note. However, spiking "good" wintergreen flavor (i.e. flavor lacking undesirable off-notes) with phenol does not impart undesirable off-notes to the good flavor. Accordingly, it is presently believed that phenol is not the only, or perhaps not even the primary, contaminant responsible for the undesirable off-notes associated with the methyl salicylate based flavor. In fact, the phenol may simply be an indicator for the presence of some other unknown contaminant responsible for the undesirable off-notes associated with flavors having wintergreen oil and/or methyl salicylate as a component.
Whatever may be the cause of the undesirable off-notes manifested by such flavors, it has unexpectedly been discovered that washing the flavor with an aqueous alkaline solution eliminates the undesirable off-notes associated therewith without otherwise adversely affecting the flavor.